


Aspects of Truth

by Mareel



Series: Aspects [2]
Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: F/M, Family, Friendship, Gen, Season 3 related, Xindi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-02
Updated: 2013-05-02
Packaged: 2017-12-10 04:41:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/781887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mareel/pseuds/Mareel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aspects of Truth

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on _Enterprise_ Season 3 canon events, and is **not** in canon with the AU stories I've written involving these characters. It is Naara's voice. 
> 
> It was written (in 2010) for the [Where No Woman](http://where-no-woman.livejournal.com/) LJ community, with the prompt being the sentence used as the summary here.

 

They told me he was a genius, the brilliant scientist whose weapon would make our world safe. I nodded my agreement; his intellect was beyond question, though the ends to which he has turned that intellect raised ethical questions in my mind. He and I talked at length about the ramifications of using the weapon he designed against a world that knew nothing of our very existence. He was convinced that it was necessary, and was resolved to see it thru to its inevitable, destructive conclusion. 'Naara,' he told me, 'it is my duty to do this myself. The work was mine, and I cannot step aside and abdicate responsibility for it, allowing others to do the final tasks for the launch of the weapon.' To some, this made him a hero. To me, it was simply a part of what made Degra the man he was – his sense of responsibility, not only to me and to his family, but also to his people, to all Xindi. 

Others told me he was a traitor. This came in whispers, in anonymous messages, in threats to the safety of our children. He had sold out to the enemy, had spoken against all that our Council had planned, all that was very near to being set in motion. He had attempted to persuade other leaders of the Xindi races to hear the arguments and weigh the evidence presented by the very aliens our weapon was to destroy. And some of those leaders had listened, and _did_ wish to learn more of the evidence before taking the irrevocable step into genocide. For this, others called him traitor. To me, this was simply another part of his nature. The scientist in him would want to know any available data, even should that cause him to question his own theories and beliefs. His loyalty to what he held most dear would supersede any political loyalty or expedience. 

There were other parts to the story, these coming to me in fragments based on information leaking from a world on the brink of civil war. He took the threats very seriously, and I asked no more of him than he could tell me of events. Our communication was limited, the channels possibly compromised. I had chosen to take our children to safety, as our own home might no longer be secure. 

Then came word of his assassination. There could be no doubting the truth of that; in his last letter to me, he had alluded to this possibility. And I think the circumstances of his death – not the public story, but the ones coming to me as coded messages from his trusted lieutenants – make it clear which parts of what I've been told are true, and which are not. Degra was true to himself and his people, and I hope his last thoughts were of the family who loved him.

________________________________________

In the weeks after his death, in the aftermath of the destruction of the weapon, I heard one final part of the story.

One man told me that Degra was his friend. This man is not a Xindi; he is human. He wrote to me of his meetings with my husband, and of some of their conversations. He told me that the two of them had both made a very difficult choice, to choose to trust one another. And that trust had saved both our worlds. 

I know _this_ part of the story to be the truth, for I know that Degra would have found a kindred spirit in this man, this Jonathan Archer. I would like to meet him one day, and for my children to meet him, this human who chose to trust their father. I would like them to know the true story as well, from the one who made its ending not one of death, but one of hope.

 


End file.
